Darla Sue Dollman - Colorados Deadliest Floods

Darla Sue Dollman has been writing for Decoded Everything, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to expertise and insightful information, for several years. She has a heaping helping of both expertise in a wide variety of topics, and a unique insight into those topicsand a truly wonderful ability to express both in the written word. Darlas writing is pure gold.

Victoria Nicks, CEO, Decoded Everything

Darla Dollman is one of those incredibly unique storytellers who has the ability to pull you into a story to the point that you never want to leave. She has always conducted impeccable research which always includes a personal and loving touch. She is simply one of the best writers I have ever known in my life.

John Grasson ECV (E Clampus Vitus), editor/publisher, Dezert Magazine

Published by The History Press

Charleston, SC

www.historypress.net

Copyright 2017 by Darla Sue Dollman

All rights reserved

Front cover: Courtesy of Pikes Peak Library District, Stewarts Commercial Photographers Collection.

First published 2017

e-book edition 2017

ISBN 978.1.43966.244.1

Library of Congress Control Number: 2017940946

print edition ISBN 978.1.46713.710.2

Notice: The information in this book is true and complete to the best of our knowledge. It is offered without guarantee on the part of the author or The History Press. The author and The History Press disclaim all liability in connection with the use of this book.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form whatsoever without prior written permission from the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

This book is dedicated to my children and grandchildren.
Thank you for your love.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to thank my editor, Artie Crisp, for his never-ending patience, knowledge and wisdom. I couldnt have done it without you.

I would also like to thank my family, particularly my grandchildren. Thank you, Layla Marie for supporting and encouraging me and for making me feel special. Thank you, Elijah Louis for inspiring me and sharing your fascination and knowledge of the weather. Thank you, Keller Elway for never forgetting me even when were far apart. Thank you, Timothy Jack for your hugs. Thank you, Joshuah Peyton for your smiles.

Thank you, Victoria Nicks for your compassion and kindness; for never giving up on me and always treating me as your equal.

Thank you to the many witnesses to the terrible, catastrophic floods in Colorado who shared their stories in this book. Thank you to CarolJoy Collins. You will always be a survivor.

Thank you, Joshuah Agnew and Michelle Levine for sharing your childhood memories of the Spring Creek Flood. Thank you Rusty Golden for jumping into the water to help save others during the flood.

I would like to say a special thank-you to the people of the Big Thompson Canyon, who are keeping the memories of the victims of the Big Thompson Flood sacred. Thank you, Barb Anderson, secretary of the Big Thompson Flood Memorial, for telling your story of the terrible night in the canyon and for sharing your advice, as well as for sharing your heartfelt poetry with the readers. Thank you, Mary Myers for sharing your research, photos and memories. Thank you Fred Bogard, David Grant and Cindi Hendrix for sharing your memories. Thank you, Stephen Gillette, for sharing your story and helping the people of Estes Park. You are a true hero.

Thank you Ulugbek Khudoynazarov for sharing your memories of the 2013 flooding in Estes Park and for your photographs, as well. Thank you Randy Kady for sharing your memories of the flooding in Loveland during the Colorado Floods of 2013. Thank you Ida Suppress for sharing your painful story of loss and recovery.

It is difficult to thank the many rescue workers involved in these floods. So many people tried to save their neighbors and friends. Others helped in equally important ways, by locating survivors, notifying family members and talking on the phone for days to take and pass on messages. Neighbors brought food, blankets and clothing to survivors. Sergeant Willis Hugh Purdy of the Colorado State Patrol and Officer Michael Owen Conley of the Estes Park Police Department sacrificed their lives attempting to warn residents and tourists to leave the canyon during the Big Thompson Flood, and words of thanks seem hardly enough for such sacrifice. Thank you, former Larimer County sheriff Robert Watson, Colorado state trooper William Miller and the hundreds of officers and National Guardsmen who responded to the call and made a valiant effort to rescue survivors. We will never forget you.

I wish to thank the soldiers who drove their horses into the floodwaters to save the women and children of Denver in the flood of 1864. Then there is the mysterious person who called residents of Denver in 1912 to tell them a flood was coming. Telephone workers stood in freezing water in 1921, calling residents to warn them that the flood was coming their way. The unnamed but never forgotten Douglas County sheriff notified workers at the Sullivan Telephone Exchange that the Castlewood Dam had burst and that everyone and everything for thirty-five miles, from Franktown to Denver, was in the path of a billion gallons of floodwater. Telephone operators worked desperately to pass that message on to everyone they could reach.

The forecasters, meteorologists, dispatchers, ambulance drivers, emergency responders, helicopter pilots, police officers and employees of the sheriffs department and the National Guardthe list of volunteers involved in flood rescue is astounding. Some names are lost to history, and some of these heroes lost their lives, but their acts of heroism set an example that will inspire the people of Colorado for generations to come.

PREFACE

It has been said time heals all wounds. I do not agree. The wounds remain. In time, the mind protecting its sanity covers them with scar tissue and the pain lessens, but its never gone.

Rose Kennedy

I have always had a fascination with the weather and a deep fear of natural disasters. Through my studies of the weather, I learned of the great loss experienced by many young parents who were unable to protect their children from the overwhelming power of nature. I was obsessed with protecting my own children, with knowing where they were and who they were with so I could call and warn them in the case of emergency. It really isnt such a bad thing when you think about itits not obsessive, its protective. Through the years, though, I realized that no matter how hard we try, we cannot protect our loved ones from the dangerous forces of nature.

Nevertheless, I tried. My children and their friends called me Doppler Mom. When storm clouds gathered outside and the phone began to ring, they knew it was me.

A LIFETIME OF STORMY WEATHER

Ive had so many experiences with bad weather in my lifetime, from floods to blizzards to ice storms. But it was only when I started writing this book that I realized how deeply I respect and fear natures power.

I decided I wanted to be a writer when I was eight years old. I was much younger when I decided to study the weather, a logical choice for someone raised in the American Southwest. Since my childhood, I have experienced nearly every form of severe weather, except for a tropical cyclone. Many of these experiences came in the form of flash floods in Colorado.